App Studio for Windows Phone BETA Released

Interesting new tool for Windows Phone developers is now in beta. Meet App Studio for Windows Phone.

App Studio guides you through building an app consuming various data sources.

Outputs will include a .xap ready to be sideloaded enterprise style via a supplied certificate, as well as source code for the application.

Note this tool is browser driven - no Windows 8 machine required - if you're not going to modify the source code that is. There are plans on the way for more goodies, so keep posted.

This is similar to appmakr or followmyfeed with a few very key differences. The 3rd party rapid app dev / prototyping tools for generating apps generally dont't give you source code, charging for various aspects of their platform. Nor are the 3rd party tools offered and supported by the OS vendor (Apple, Google, or Microsoft).

Interesting scenarios include :

Prototyping

Aspiring devs - put their ideas into play, modify, extend

Accomplished dev looking for a quick look-and-feel tool - whiteboard or coding with extension in mind

"Family Apps" - app doesn't have to be published to share it via certificate install path